Bill deposit/withdrawal machine for depositing/withdrawing bills

ABSTRACT

A bill deposit/withdrawal machine for performing deposit or withdrawal of bills includes a deposit/withdrawal port for performing deposit or withdrawal of bills, a bill discriminating unit for discriminating bills, a plurality of bill accepting boxes for accepting bills, a bill transport path for transporting bills, an upper bill mechanism disposed in an upper portion of the machine for forming a unit including the deposit/withdrawal port and the bill discriminating unit, and a lower bill mechanism disposed in a lower portion of the machine for forming a unit including the plurality of bill accepting boxes. The upper bill mechanism includes a reject box for accepting non-returning bills which cannot be accepted into the plurality of boxes or bills forgotten to be taken out.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/443,051, filed May 22, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,898, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/191,326, filed Jul. 10,2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,572,013, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/455,535, filed Dec. 7, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No.6,424,458, which application is related to U.S. Ser. No. 09/339,932filed Jun. 25, 1999, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The conventional bill deposit/withdrawal machine mounted on an automatedteller machine used in, for example, a banking organ or the likeincludes a deposit/withdrawal port for accepting bills (or paper money)inputted by a user, delivering the bills inputted by the user, andaccepting bills to be discharged to a user, a bill discriminating unitfor discriminating bills, and a bill transport path for transportingbills while passing them through the bill discriminating unit. Theconstruction of the conventional bill deposit/withdrawal machine furtherincludes the combination of units including a temporary storage box fortemporarily accepting deposited bills, a deposit box for acceptingdeposited bills, a withdrawal box for delivering bills for withdrawal, arecycle box for accepting and delivering bills for both deposit andwithdrawal, a reject box for accepting deposited bills which are notaccepted in the deposit box or the recycle box and bills which aredelivered from the withdrawal box, but not withdrawn, and aload/recovery for delivering bills to be supplemented for the recyclebox and accepting bills recovered from the recycle box, and so forth.Various constructions have been proposed for the construction andarrangement of those units and the route of the bill transport path forconnecting those units.

For example, in an example described in JP-A-7-267513, two ring-liketransport paths passing through a bill discriminating unit in onedirection are configured in a character “8” form. In one of thering-like transport paths, a deposit port, a withdrawal port, and atemporary reserve unit are arranged. In the other of the ring-liketransport paths, a recycle box and a recovery box are arranged.

In an example described in JP-A-10-188074, a bi-directional transportpath passing through a bill inspection unit in both directions isprovided. A deposit/withdrawal port, a temporary storage box (atemporary reserve accepting unit), and a recycle box (a 10,000-yen billand 1,000-yen bill accepting unit) are connected to the bi-directionaltransport path.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the spread of automated teller machines, there is an increasingneed for a bill/withdrawal machine which is smaller in size, lower incost, and easier to use while assuring the functions and performance ofthe conventional machine. Regarding bills to be handled, on the otherhand, there is required a machine which can handle not only Japanese yenbills but also foreign bills with the increase of handling of foreignbills in the territory of Japan and the increase of a need for billdeposit/withdrawal machine outside the territory of Japan. Furthermore,there are machines of various types according to needs. There isrequired a bill deposit/withdrawal machine which can be widely used andwhich can cope with a wide variety of needs, such as the bill kinds tobe handled, arrangement of a bill slot for deposit and withdrawalregarding the user operation, the front or back face operation regardingthe user operation of the clerk in charge, and the bill box casingregarding the security.

In the conventional technique, a bill deposit/withdrawal machine ofreturn type which recycles deposited bills for withdrawal includes adeposit/withdrawal port, recycle boxes for respective bill kinds, a billdiscriminating unit, and a bill transport path. The bill transport pathhas such a complicated construction as to join/branch around the billdiscriminating unit in a branch form. For instance, in the example shownin the aforementioned JP-A-7-267513, a bill transport path includes afirst ring-like bill transport path which passes through a billinspection device and pass through a lower part of a deposit/withdrawalport, and a second ring-like bill transport path which passes throughthe bill inspection device and pass through a recycle box. The billtransport path thus constructs a “character 8-shaped” bill transportpath. In the example described in JP-A-10-188074, a bidirectionaltransport path passing through a bill inspection unit in both directionsis provided. A deposit/withdrawal port, a temporary storage box, and arecycle box (a 10,000-yen bill and 1,000-yen bill accepting unit) areconnected to the bidirectional transport path. This bidirectionaltransport path is composed of three bidirectional transport pathsrequiring respective separate driving sources. At the time of depositoperation (operation before deposit determination and operation afterdeposit determination) and at the time of withdrawal operation,directions of respective transport paths need to be switchedindependently.

Such a machine operates in an automated-machine corner of a bankingorgan in an unmanned state for a whole day, and needs to operate forcash deposit/withdrawal transactions of users with high reliability. Forexample, in deposit transactions, various users might input a folded orbroken bill to the deposit port or input a coin or an alien substancetogether with bills to the deposit port by mistake. When delivering sucha bill, it might incline largely or be broken. Depending upon thetransport state, there is not a little possibility of jam occurrence inthe bill transport path. Furthermore, in a machine capable of handlingforeign bills as well, not only the number of bill kinds increases ascompared with the case of Japanese yen bills, but also the size of billslargely differ in both the longitudinal and lateral directions accordingto the bill kind in many cases. There is a possibility of a large numberof bills inputted to the deposit port being largely disturbed inevenness. Furthermore, as for the degree of fold and breaking of bills,there are bills in conditions worse than those of Japanese yen bills,when seen from the circulating situation of bills in various countries.In the above described conventional example, the bill transport path hascomplicated branch/confluent points. Therefore, reduction of bill jamsin the bill transport path becomes an important problem.

Furthermore, in the above described conventional example, theconstruction is expandable and universal as to the number of bill kindsto be handled. However, the above described universality capable ofcoping with various needs concerning the operability of the user and theclerk in charge and security has not been considered.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a billdeposit/withdrawal machine having a simple bill transport pathconstruction.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliablebill deposit/withdrawal machine which is reduced in bill jam not onlyfor Japanese yen bills but also for bills of various sizes.

A third object of the present invention is to provide automated tellermachines satisfying various specifications as to the operability of theuser and the clerk in charge and the security, and provide a billdeposit/withdrawal machine having a high general-purpose ability as tothe operability of the user and the clerk in charge and security.

The above described objects are attained by a bill deposit/withdrawalmachine according to the present invention having a deposit/withdrawalport, a bill discriminating unit, bill accepting boxes, and a billtransport path.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, adeposit/withdrawal port and a bill discriminating unit are disposed inan upper part of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine, whereas billaccepting boxes are disposed in a lower part of the billdeposit/withdrawal machine. A bill transport path is constructed so asto be able to be divided into the upper part and the lower part. Apartfrom a machine casing surrounding the whole of an automated tellermachine, a bill box casing surrounding only a lower part of the billdeposit/withdrawal machine composed of a lower bill transport path andthe bill accepting boxes can be mounted. The lower bill transport pathis disposed near the wall face of user's operation side of the bill boxcasing, or near the wall face of the opposite side.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, the lowerbill transport path is constructed so as to be openable and closable inorder that the bill accepting boxes can be individually operated in thehorizontal direction of either of the user's side and its opposite side.

In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, the lowerbill transport path is constructed so as to be reversible in theforward-backward direction in order that the lower bill transport pathis disposed on a side opposite to the user's side in the case of amachine of front operation type and on the user's side in the case of amachine of back operation type.

Owing to such constructions, automated teller machines of variousspecifications in aspects of operability of the clerk in charge andsecurity are provided. In addition, a bill deposit/withdrawal machinewhich is highly versatile in aspects of operability of the clerk incharge and security can be provided.

In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, the billtransport path is formed of a ring-like main bill transport path fortransporting bills through a bill discriminating unit unidirectionally,unit transport paths for connecting a deposit/withdrawal port and atemporary storage box to the main bill transport path, and abidirectional accepting box transport path for connecting at least onebill accepting boxes to the main bill transport path.

In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention, a temporarystorage box includes a rotary drum, winds bills transported from thebill discriminating unit around the rotary drum one after another tostore the bills, and transport the wound bills to the bill transportpath by rotating the rotary drum reversely after materialization of apredetermined transaction. The temporary storage box serves not only asa temporary deposited bill storage box for storing bills kind-settled inthe bill discriminating unit out of deposited bills untilmaterialization of a transaction, but also as a temporary withdrawalrejected bill storage box for storing bills which are not kind-settledin the bill discriminating unit out of bills delivered from the billaccepting box at the time of withdraw transaction, until materializationof a transaction. As a result, a highly reliable bill deposit/withdrawalmachine which is simple in bill transport path construction and low inrisk of bill jam for bills of various sizes can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is an oblique view showing an exterior view of an embodiment ofan automated teller machine to which a first embodiment of the presentinvention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing control relations of an automatedteller machine in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a first embodiment of a billdeposit/withdrawal machine according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing control relations of a billdeposit/withdrawal machine in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing an operation method of theautomated teller machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction in afirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction in afirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction in afirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction in afirst embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a side view of a deposit/withdrawal port in an embodiment ofthe present invention (basic construction diagram);

FIG. 15 is a side view of a deposit/withdrawal port in an embodiment ofthe present invention (at the time of deposit);

FIG. 16 is a side view of a deposit/withdrawal port in an embodiment ofthe present invention (at the time of deliver);

FIG. 17 is a side view of a deposit/withdrawal port in an embodiment ofthe present invention (at the time of acceptance);

FIG. 18 is a side view of a deposit/withdrawal port in an embodiment ofthe present invention (at the time of withdrawal);

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a construction example of a temporarystorage box in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a side view of a deposit box in an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 21 is a side view of a withdrawal box in an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 22 is a side view of a recycle box in an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram showing a bill flow at the time of loadcount in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram showing a bill flow at the time of loadacceptance in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram showing a bill flow at the time ofrecovery count in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic diagram showing a bill flow at the time ofrecovery acceptance in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a side view showing a second embodiment of a billdeposit/withdrawal machine according to the present invention;

FIG. 28 is an oblique view showing an exterior view of an embodiment ofan automated teller machine to which a second embodiment of the presentinvention is applied;

FIGS. 29A and 29B are diagrams showing operation methods of theautomated teller machine shown in FIG. 28;

FIGS. 30A, 30B and 30C are schematic diagrams of a bill transport pathconstruction in a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 31 is a side view showing a third embodiment of a billdeposit/withdrawal machine according to the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (construction diagram);

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of depositcount);

FIG. 34 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of depositacceptance);

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of cancelreturn);

FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of withdrawal);

FIG. 37 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of withdrawalreject acceptance);

FIG. 38 is a schematic diagram of a bill transport path construction ina third embodiment of the present invention (at the time of recovery forforgotten takeout);

FIG. 39 is a side view showing an operation method of a fourthembodiment of a bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism according to thepresent invention; and

FIG. 40 is a side view showing another operation method of a fourthembodiment of a bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism according to thepresent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

<First Embodiment>

Hereafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described byreferring to the drawing. FIG. 1 is an oblique view showing an exteriorview of an automated teller machine to which the present invention isapplied.

On the left inside of an automated teller machine 101, there areprovided a card/slip processing mechanism 102 and a customer operationsection 105. The card/slip processing mechanism 102 communicates with acard slot 102 a provided in an upper front plate 101 a to process auser's card, and prints and delivers a transaction particulars slip. Thecustomer operation section 105 is used for displaying and inputting thecontents of a transaction. Furthermore, on the right inside of theautomated teller machine 101, there is provided a billdeposit/withdrawal machine 1 for processing bills. In the upper inclinedfront plate 101 a, a bill slot 20 a is provided. A bill acceptancesection provided under the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 1 issurrounded by a bill box casing 106 made of a thick iron plate having athickness of several tens mm which is separate from a machine casing 101b. Although the machine casing 101 b also has a rigid casing structure,the bill box casing 106 has a more rigid structure to improve thesecurity. This automated teller machine 101 can conduct processing suchas user's deposit, withdrawal, and transfer by using a card, bills, anda slip as a medium.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram showing control relations of thepresent machine. As described before, the card/slip processing mechanism102, the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 1, and the customer operationsection 105 which are housed in the automated teller machine 101 areconnected to a body control section 107 through a bus 107 a and performtheir required operations under the control of the body control section106. Though the body control section 107 is also connected through thebus 107 a to an interface section 107 b, a clerk-in-charge operationsection 107 c and an external memory 107 d to make the communication ofnecessary data therewith, the detailed description thereof will beomitted since there is no direct relation with the features of thepresent invention. Reference numeral 101 e shown in FIG. 2 denotes apower supply section for supplying electric power to the above-mentionedmechanisms and components.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the construction of that billdeposit/withdrawal mechanism 1 in the automated teller machine shown inFIG. 1 to which the present invention relates.

The bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism 1 is composed of adeposit/withdrawal port 20 for which a user makes the input/takeout ofbills, a bill discriminating unit 30 for discriminating bills, atemporary storage box 40 for accepting deposited bills once until thematerialization of a transaction, one deposit box 60 for accepting, atthe time of deposit, bills for which the materialization of atransaction is completed, one withdrawal box 70 for accepting bills forwithdrawal, two recycle boxes 80 for both deposit and withdrawal, aload/recovery box 81 for accepting bills to be supplemented for therecycle boxes 80 and bills recovered from the recycle box, a billtransport path 50 for transporting bills to the deposit/withdrawal port20, the temporary storage box 40, the deposit box 60, the withdrawal box70, the recycle boxes 80, and the load/recovery box 11 while passing thebills through the bill discriminating unit 30, and a control unit whichis not illustrated.

As shown in FIG. 4, a control unit 35 is connected to the body controlunit 107 of the machine through the bus 107 a. The control unit 35performs the control of the bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism 1 inaccordance with a command from the body control section 107 and thedetection of the state of the bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism 1, andsends the state of the bill deposit/withdrawal mechanism 1 to the bodycontrol section 107, as required. In the bill deposit/withdrawalmechanism 1, the control unit 35 is connected to a driving motor,electromagnetic solenoid or sensor of each unit (the deposit/withdrawalport 20, the bill discriminating unit 30, the temporary storage box 40,the bill transport path 50, the deposit box 60, the withdrawal box 70,the recycle boxes 80, and the load/recovery box 81) to control thedriving of actuators in accordance with transactions while monitoringthe states by use of the sensors.

As shown in FIG. 3, the present deposit/withdrawal machine 1 is composedof an upper transport mechanism 1 a and a lower bill mechanism 1 b. Theupper transport mechanism 1 a is composed of the deposit/withdrawal port20, the bill discriminating unit 30, the temporary storage box 40, andthe bill transport path 50. The lower bill mechanism 1 b is composed ofthe deposit box 60, the withdrawal box 70, the recycle boxes 80, theload/recovery box 81, and an openable/closable transport path 90provided in front of respective accepting boxes. Furthermore, the lowerbill mechanism 1 b is mounted within the bill box casing 106 made of athick iron plate having a thickness of approximately 50 mm. Thetransport path of the upper transport mechanism 1 a is connected to thetransport path of the lower transport mechanism 1 b through a couplingtransport path 501 h.

The coupling transport path 501 h is disposed in a position of a topiron plate of the bill box casing 106 surrounding the lower transportmechanism 1 b where a transport path 501 g of the upper transportmechanism 1 a is coupled to a transport path 901 a of the lowertransport mechanism 1 b. A slit opened in the top iron plate has alength for passing a bill, and a size of a width of transport rollersattached so as to sandwich and deliver a bill transported to the slit.If the lower transport mechanism 1 b is not surrounded by the bill boxcasing and the upper transport mechanism 1 a is placed directly on thelower transport mechanism 1 b, then the coupling transport path is notalways necessary. The driving source (motor) of the transport path maybe provided for each of the transport path of the upper transportmechanism and the transport path of the lower transport mechanism.Alternatively, a single driving source may be used, and the drivingforce may be transmitted through a gear provided in the transport path501 g–501 h–901 a.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 1 having theconstruction heretofore described is mounted on the right inside of theautomated teller machine 101. Depending upon the machine type, the billdeposit/withdrawal machine 1 can be a front operation type or a backoperation type. Depending upon whether the bill deposit/withdrawalmachine 1 is the front operation type or the back operation type, theconstruction differs slightly. In such a machine of front operation typethat a clerk in charge operates from the front of the machine as shownin FIG. 5A, a front door 101 c of the machine 1 and a front door 106 aof the bill box casing 106 are adapted to be openable and closable. Whenthe doors 101 c and 106 a are opened and the opened/closed transmissionpath 90 of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 1 is further opened asillustrated, the accepting boxes having respective handles appear. Theclerk in charge can pull out each accepting box by means of this handle,and perform operations such as supplementation and recovery of bills andother maintenance works.

On the other hand, in such a machine of operation type that a clerk incharge operates from the back of the machine as shown in FIG. 5B, a backdoor 101 d of the machine 1 and a back door 106 b of the bill box casing106 are adapted to be openable and closable. When the doors 101 d and106 b are opened as illustrated, the accepting boxes having respectivehandles appear. The clerk in charge can pull out each accepting box bymeans of this handle, and perform operations.

By adopting such a construction that the opened/closed transmission pathis disposed near the front door or the back door of the lower billmechanism as heretofore described, it becomes easy to perform thesupplementation and recovery operation of bills and removal operation ofa jammed bill at the time of occurrence of an abnormality. Operabilityis thus improved. Furthermore, the operation of the clerk in charge canbe conformed to both the front operation type and the back operationtype by merely disposing the opening and closing door in the front faceor back face.

By the way, if each accepting box is provided with rails, each acceptingbox can be pulled out smoothly.

Furthermore, the bill transport path 50 passes through the billdiscriminating unit 30 in both directions. By way of the transport pathindicated by arrows 501 a to 501 h and 901 a to 901 e, the billtransport path 50 connects the deposit/withdrawal port 20, the temporarystorage box 40, the deposit box 60, the withdrawal box 70, the recyclebox 80, and the load/recovery box 81. Among arrows, each ofunidirectional arrows indicates a unidirectional bill transport path fortransporting bills only in the direction of the arrow. Each ofbidirectional arrows indicates a bidirectional transport path fortransporting bills in one of the both directions switched everytransaction operation. FIG. 6 schematically shows relations between thebill transport path 50 (501 a to 501 h and 901 a to 901 e) andrespective units (20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 81) illustrated inFIG. 3. (For simplifying the drawing, a part of 50, 70, and 81 areomitted in FIG. 6.) The bill transport path 50 is driven by a drivingmotor which is not illustrated. For each of transaction operations asshown in FIGS. 7 to 13, the rotation direction of the motor is switched.Furthermore, switching gates 502, 503, 504 and five switching gates 902are disposed at branch points of the bill transport path 50. For each ofthe transaction operations, the bill transport direction is switched asindicated by symbols “a” and “b.”

In the bill transport path 50, five bill transport paths 901 a to 901 edisposed in the lower bill mechanism 1 b and disposed in front of thedeposit box 60, the withdrawal box 70, the recycle box 80, and theload/recovery box 81 construct the opened/closed transmission path 90adapted to be able to be opened/closed as one body. In the machine ofthe front operation type shown in FIG. 5A, the clerk in charge can openthe opened/closed transmission path 90, and operate the deposit box 60,the withdrawal box 70, the recycle box 80, and the load/recovery box 81.

Prior to description of operation of each of transaction operationsshown in FIGS. 7 to 13, details of the above-mentioned units (20, 30,40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 81) of the present embodiment and operationsthereof will be hereafter described in detail by referring to FIGS. 14to 22.

The deposit/withdrawal port 20 has a shutter 201, as shown in FIG. 14.The shutter 201 can be slid in a direction of arrow 217 to beopened/closed. When the shutter 201 is moved into a state indicated byillustrated 201 a, the user can take out bills at the time of withdrawaland input bills at the time of deposit in a direction indicated by arrow202. A bill hopper 216 is rotated between a position indicated by asolid line and a position indicated by a broken line.

When a user deposits bills at the time of deposit transaction, theshutter 201 is opened as shown in FIG. 15. Bills 210 are inputtedbetween a front plate 204 and a push plate 203 with a rear plate 205.The front plate 204, the push plate 203, and the rear plate 205 aresupported by the bill hopper 216. Subsequently, at the time of deliveryoperation of deposited bills, the shutter 201 is closed and the billhopper 216 is rotated as shown in FIG. 16. Thereafter, the bills arepushed by the plate 203 in a direction of a feed roller 206 so that thepush plate and the front plate are brought into the states of 203 a and204 a and the bills are fed forward by a rotating operation of the feedroller 206, while a two-sheet feed is prevented by a gate roller 207which does not rotate in the direction of delivery. Thus, the bills 210at the deposit/withdrawal port 2 are delivered in a direction indicatedby arrow 208 so that they join the bill transport path 50 and are thentaken into the machine.

As shown in FIG. 17, bills withdrawn from the machine and bills rejectedfor reasons such as the difficulty in bill discrimination at the time ofdeposit or the like are transported from the inside of the machine in adirection of arrow 501 f, and they are sent between a rotating stackroller 211 and a backup roller 213. A brush roller 212 is disposed onthe same axis as the backup roller 213 and has elastic members 212 aradially arranged, as shown. The brush roller 212 is rotated by adriving source (not shown) independently of the backup roller 213. Thebill sent between the stack roller 211 and the backup roller 213contacts the elastic member 212 a of the stopped brush roller 212 and ispassed while receiving a frictional resistance force against a stackguide 214 owing to an elastic deformation force of the elastic member212 a. The bill is stopped once at a bill position indicated by solidline 215 where a sandwiching transport force of the stack roller 211 andthe backup roller 213 runs out. Immediately thereafter, the brush roller212 is rotated so that the bill is stacked in a space between the pushplate 203 a and a rear plate 205 a. Accordingly, the bill does not flyout upward in an accepting space. By merely scratching the bill in ahorizontal direction by the brush roller 212, no interference betweencontinuously transported bills is caused and hence a vertical unevennessis rarely to be caused. Accordingly, it becomes possible for the user toeasily take out the bills. As shown in FIG. 18, the bill hopper 216 isrotated, and then the shutter 201 is opened. Bills accepted in the billhopper 215 are discharged to the user.

Description will be given by referring to FIG. 3 again. Though thedetails are not shown, the bill discriminating unit 30 is composed of atwo-sheet detecting portion which includes a pair of rollers and detectsthe displacement of the rollers at the time of transport of billsbetween the rollers to detect whether or not there is thesuperimposition of two sheets one over the other, and a discriminatingportion which detects the print of a bill by means of an image sensor orthe like to discriminate the kind of that bill and the truth orfalsehood thereof. The control unit 35 is informed of the result ofdiscrimination for each passed bill.

The temporary storage box 40 has a function of successively acceptingbills deposited from the deposit/withdrawal port 20 and kind-settled bythe bill discriminating unit 30 at the time of deposit transaction,reserving them temporarily until the transaction is materialized, andsuccessively discharging the bills after the materialization of thetransaction. Besides, though the details will be described later, thetemporary storage box 40 in the present embodiment has a function ofaccepting bills which are not kind-settled by the bill discriminatingunit 30 at the time of withdrawal transaction, reserving themtemporarily until the withdrawal transaction is materialized, and afterthe termination of the operation, discharging the bills at the time ofwithdrawal reject acceptance operation. The construction of thetemporary storage box 4 is shown in FIG. 19. The temporary storage box40 is composed of an inducing tape made of plastic, a rotary drum 401for winding a bill transported together with the inducing tape 403around it, a winding shaft 402 for winding only the inducing tape 403around it, an inlet roller 405 for guiding the entrance of a bill to therotary drum 401 and rotating together with the inducing tape 403, and abackup roller 404 provided opposite to the inlet roller 405. The rotarydrum 401 and the winding shaft 402 supporting the opposite ends of theinducing tape 403 are respectively connected to separate driving sources411 and 412. The connection of the winding shaft 402 to the drivingsource 412 is made through a torque limiter 413.

An initial-portion sensor (not shown) for detecting an initial positionof the inducing tape 403 and a near-fullness sensor (not shown) fordetecting the vicinity of the end of the inducing tape 403 may beprovided while an encoder (not shown) for detecting the current windingamount of the inducing tape 403 with the initial position of theinducing tape 403 taken as a reference is attached to the inlet roller405, so that the control unit 35 makes a timing control or the like byuse of signals from the sensors and the encoder. Also, a temporarystorage box passage sensor for sensing bills to be accepted in thetemporary storage box and discharged therefrom to count the bills may beprovided on the transport path from the inlet roller 405 on the rotarydrum 401 side.

Before acceptance operation, the inducing tape 403 has been wound on thewinding shaft 402 side up to the initial position. In the case whereaccepted bills are to be accepted into the temporary storage box 40, thedriving source 411 is driven in such a direction as to wind the inducingtape 403 around the rotary drum 401. The rotary drum 401 rotates so thatthe travel speed of the inducing tape 403 becomes substantially equal tothe entering speed of bills. The switching gate 503 is switched to adirection indicated by 503 a in FIG. 19 and the inlet/outlet gate 504 isswitched to a direction indicated by 504 a. Thereby, the deposited billstransported in the direction of arrow 501 c are successively woundaround the rotary drum 401 through a route of arrows 501 d and 454. Onthe other hand, the winding shaft 402 is driven by the driving source412 through the torque limiter 413 so that a tensile force is applied tothe inducing tape 403. Thereby, the inducing tape 403 is wound aroundthe rotary drum 401 with no slack and together with the bills.

At the time of discharge operation, the inlet/outlet gate 504 isswitched to a direction indicated by 504 b and the rotary drum 401 isreversely rotated while the winding shaft 402 is driven in its windingdirection through the torque limiter with a tensile force applied to theinducing tape 403. Thereby, the bills wound on the rotary drum 401 aredelivered on the bill transport path 50 through a route of arrow 455 ina sequence reverse to that at the time of acceptance. In the dischargeoperation, there are two kinds as described later. When the inlet/outletgate 504 is switched to a direction indicated by 504 a, the bills aredischarged in a direction indicated by arrows 501 d and 501 c. When theinlet/outlet gate 504 is switched to a direction indicated by 504 b, thebills are discharged in a direction indicated by arrow 501 e.

Referring to FIG. 3 again, the deposit box 60 is mounted one in numberin the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 20, the deposit box 60constructs a stack mechanism composed of a rotating stack roller 601driven through a gear by a driving source (not shown) outside the box60, backup rollers 602 and 603 opposite to the stack roller 601, a brushroller 604 disposed on the same axis as the backup roller 603 androtated by a driving source (not shown) independently of the backuproller, the brush roller having elastic members 604 a radially arranged,as shown, a lower stack guide 605 and an upper stack guide 606. A billaccepting space includes a stacked-bill accepting space 617 which isformed by an upper partition plate 611, a lower partition plate 613 anda push plate 615, and a bill-under-stacking accepting space 616 which isformed by the upper partition plate 611, the lower partition plate 613,the upper stack guide 606 and the lower stack guide 605.

Bills to be accepted in the deposit box 60 are transported in adirection of arrow 902 a from the bill transport path (indicated byarrow 901 a) with a switching gate 903 switched as indicated by 903 b,and are then sent between the rotating stack roller 601 and the backuprollers 602 and 603. The bill sent between the stack roller 601 and thebackup roller 603 contacts the elastic member 604 a of the stopped brushroller 604, and is passed while receiving a frictional resistance forceagainst the lower stack guide 605 owing to an elastic deformation forceof the elastic member 604 a. The bill is stopped once in a positionwhere sandwiching transport force of the stack roller 601 and the backuproller 603 runs out. Immediately thereafter, the brush roller 604 isrotated so that the bill is stacked in the above-mentionedbill-under-stacking accepting space 616 with no interference causedbetween continuously transported bills.

Next, a driving belt 618 is driven by a driving source (not shown) sothat a push plate 608, a push assist guide 609, a push support shaft 610and the upper stack guide 606 coupled to the driving belt 618 are movedup to positions of dotted lines 608 a, 609 a, 610 a and 606 a indirections of arrows 621 and 622 while the upper partition plate 611 andan upper partition plate support shaft 612 coupled to the driving belt618 are successively moved to positions of dotted lines 611 a and 612 a,to positions of dotted lines 611 b and 612 b and to positions of dottedlines 611 c and 612 b in a direction of arrow 625. Thereby, the billsstacked in the bill-under-stacking accepting space 616 are pushed intothe stacked-bill accepting space 617 together with bills in thestacked-bill accepting space 617 by moving the push plate 615 in adirection of arrow 624 and the lower stack guide 613 in a direction ofarrow 623. Next, the driving belt 618 is driven in a reverse directionso that the push plate 608, the push assist guide 609, the push supportshaft 610, the upper stack guide 606, the upper partition plate 611 andthe upper partition plate support shaft 612 are returned to the initialpositions to bring the bill-under-stacking accepting space 616 into anempty condition, thereby enabling the next stacking operation.

The withdrawal box 70 is mounted one in number in the presentembodiment. As shown in FIG. 21, the withdrawal box 70 constructs aseparation mechanism composed of a rotating feed roller 701 and arotating pickup roller 711 which are driven through gears by drivingsources (not shown) outside the box 70, a rotating backup roller 702which is provided opposite to the feed roller 701, and a gate roller 704which is provided opposite to the feed roller 701 and does not rotate ina delivering direction. Bills for withdrawal are set in alignment (orwith evenness) by a clerk in charge into an accepting space enclosed bya bottom plate guide 709, a push plate 706, a separation guide 705 andan upper face guide 708 with the foremost bill pushed against the pickuproller 711 by a spring (not shown) coupled to the push plate 706. Thepush plate 706 is made movable in the accepting space to move theaccepted bills so that bills to be delivered impose a predeterminedpushing force upon the pickup roller 711 with the decrease in number ofaccepted bills. The bills pushed against the pickup roller 711 aredelivered owing to the operations of the rotating feed and pickuprollers 701 and 711 and are transported one by one in a direction ofarrow 902 e while a two-sheet feed is prevented by the gate roller 703which does not rotate in the delivering direction. Thus, the bills aretransported along the bill transport path in a direction of arrow 901 e.

The recycle box 80 is mounted two in number in the present embodiment.The construction of the recycle box 80 is shown in FIG. 22.

The recycle box 80 has both the function of the deposit box 60 ofcontinuously accepting bills and the function of the withdrawal box 70of continuously delivering bills in a separated manner. Therefore, therecycle box 80 is an accepting box which is capable of performingacceptance and separate delivery. The recycle box 80 constructs astack/separation mechanism composed of a stack/feed roller 801 and apickup roller 811 which have the same shapes as the separation mechanismdescribed with reference to the withdrawal box 70, a rotating backuproller 802, a gate roller 803 which rotates in a stacking direction anddoes not rotate in a delivering direction, a brush roller 804 which isdisposed on the same axis as the gate roller 803 and includes radiallyarranged elastic members, and a separation/stack guide 805 which is mademovable at the time of separation and at the time of stacking. Bills areaccepted in an accepting space enclosed by a bottom plate 808, a pushplate 806, a flat bottom face belt 807 suspended so that it supports thelower face of a bill in a plane upper than the bottom plate 808, and theseparation/stack guide 805. The recycle box 80 is further provided witha rotating upper scratch roller 812 disposed with a sawtooth-likeperiphery form in the vicinity of the separation/stack guide 805 in anupper portion of the accepting section, and a rotating lower scratchbelt 809 disposed with a sawtooth-like periphery form in the vicinity ofthe separation/stack guide 805 in a lower portion of the acceptingsection, so that the sawtooth-like periphery portions support the upperand lower ends of a stacked bill to maintain a standing condition of thebill while scratching the bill on the push plate 806 side.

At the time of separation operation, the separation/stack guide 805 ismoved to a position indicated by dotted line 805 a, and the push plate806 and the bottom face belt 807 are made movable integrally in theaccepting space to move the accepted bills so that bills to be deliveredimpose a predetermined pushing force upon the pickup roller 811 owing toa spring which is not shown. The bills pushed against the pickup roller811 are delivered by the rotating stack/feed roller 801, and aretransported one by one in a direction of arrow 902 b while a two-sheetfeed is prevented by the gate roller 803 which does not rotate in thedelivering direction. Also, a switching gate 903 of the bill transportpath is switched to a direction of 903 b so that the bills aretransported in a direction of arrow 901 b.

At the time of stack operation, the separation/stack guide 805 is movedto a position indicated by a solid line, and the push plate 806 and thebottom face belt 807 are made movable integrally in the accepting spaceowing to driving sources (not shown) outside the recycle box to make thecontrolled movement of the accepted bills in a direction receding fromthe separation/stack guide 805 so that an entering bill transported in adirection of arrow 902 b and the accepted bills do not interfere withthe increase in number of accepted bills. At this time, the upperscratch roller 812 and the lower scratch roller 809 make a lefthandedrotation and a righthanded rotation, respectively, so that thesawtooth-like periphery portions support the upper and lower ends of astacked bill to maintain a standing condition of the bill whilescratching the bill on the push plate 806 side.

The load/recovery box 81 has the same construction as the recycle box80. Although the load/recovery box 81 is not used for deposit/withdrawaltransaction, it may be used as a recycle box.

Next, the operation of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine of thepresent embodiment will be described by referring to schematic diagramsof FIGS. 7 to 13 and FIGS. 23 to 26. (As for detailed construction andreference numerals, see FIG. 3.)

Operations of deposit transaction are classified into deposit countoperation for counting bills deposited by the user as shown in FIG. 7and deposit acceptance operation for accepting bills into individualaccepting boxes associated with respective bill kinds after user'sconfirmation for a counted amount of money has been inputted. In thecase where cancel is selected at the time of user's confirmation input,cancel return operation shown in FIG. 9 is performed.

At the time of deposit count operation (see FIG. 7), bills inputted tothe deposit/withdrawal port 20 are separated one by one. The bill istransported as indicated by arrows 501 a and 501 b, and is subjected tothe discrimination of the kind of the bill and the truth or falsehoodthereof by the bill discriminating unit 30. As for a discriminated bill,a switching gate 503 is switched to 503 a, and the bill is transportedin a direction of arrows 501 c and 501 d and is temporarily acceptedinto the temporary storage box 40. Deposit-rejected bills includingbills having resulted in the impossibility of discrimination by the billdiscriminating unit 30 and bills having abnormal inclination thereof orabnormal interval between them are not taken into the temporary storagebox 40, but transported through the switching gate 503 switched to 503 band through a route of arrow 501 f and accepted into thedeposit/withdrawal port 20 for return to a user.

At the time of deposit acceptance (see FIG. 8), the rotary drum 401 isrotated in a direction reverse to that at the time of acceptance intothe temporary storage box 40. Bills wound around the rotary drum 401 aredelivered in a direction reverse to that at the time of acceptance intothe temporary storage box 40 as indicated by arrow 501 d, in a sequencereverse to that at the time of acceptance into the temporary storage box40. The bills are then transported as indicated by arrows 501 c and 501b, passed through the bill discriminating unit 30, and a switching gate502 switched to a direction indicated by arrow 502 b. The bills arepassed through 501 g, 501 h, and 901 a, and accepted into a specifiedaccepting box through a switching gate 903 of one of the deposit box 60,the recycle box 80, and the reject box 90 switched to a directionindicated by arrow 903 b. At this time, an accepting box may bespecified by discriminating the kind and the truth or falsehood of thebills in the bill discriminating unit 30 again. Alternatively, it ispossible to provide a means for storing results of discrimination of allbills when accepting them into the temporary storage box 40 at the timeof the deposit count and specify an accepting box on the basis of thestored contents. In the latter case, the processing time required tospecify the accepting box can be shortened, and the portion of thearrows 501 g, 501 h, and 901 a can be shortened.

At the time of cancel return (see FIG. 9), the rotary drum 401 isrotated in a direction reverse to that at the time of acceptance intothe temporary storage box 40. The switching gate 504 is switched to adirection indicated by 504 b. Bills wound around the rotary drum 401 aretransported as indicated by arrows 501 e and 501 f, in a sequencereverse to that at the time of acceptance into the temporary storage box40. The bills are then accepted into the deposit/withdrawal port 20 forreturn to the user.

Alternatively, instead of providing the switching gate 504 and theportion of the bill transport path indicated by the arrow 501 e, aconstruction shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 may be used. In other words, as afirst stage, the bill transport path is stopped in such a stage that thebills are delivered from the temporary storage box 40 onto portions ofthe bill transport path indicated by arrows 501 c, 501 b, 501 g, 501 hand 901 a to 901 e as shown in FIG. 10. As a second stage, the billtransport path is reversed as shown in FIG. 11, and the bills areaccepted into the deposit/withdrawal port 20 through a route indicatedby arrows 901 e to 901 a, 501 h, 501 g, 501 b, 501 c, and 501 f. Whenthe deposited bills are large in number, it is also possible to repeatthe operations of the first and second stages and return the depositedbills to the user. As a result, the bill transport path can have asimpler construction.

At the time of withdrawal transaction (see FIG. 12), bills are deliveredout of a bill box for each bill kind in the withdrawal box 70 (omittedin FIG. 12) and the recycle box 80 by predetermined numbers, transportedthrough a route of arrows 901 e, 901 d, 901 c, 901 b, 901 a, 501 h and501 g, and subjected to the bill kind discrimination by the billdiscriminating unit 30. Thereafter, the bills are branched at theswitching gate 503, accepted into the deposit/withdrawal port 20, andpaid to the user. In the case where a withdrawal rejection caused byimpossibility of discrimination in the bill discriminating unit 30 isgenerated, the corresponding bills are temporarily accepted into thetemporary storage box 40 through the switching gate switched to adirection indicated by 503 a in the same way as the deposit count. Billscorresponding to the shortage are additionally delivered from thewithdrawal box 70 and/or the recycle box 80.

In the case where a reject occurs at the time of withdrawal transactionand bills are accepted into the temporary storage box 40, withdrawalreject acceptance operation shown in FIG. 13 is performed. In thepresent embodiment, all of the withdrawal reject bills in the temporarystorage box 40 are accepted into the deposit box 60 as illustrated.Alternatively, the withdrawal reject bills are subjected todiscrimination as to bill kind and truth or falsehood again when theyare passed through the bill discriminating unit 30, and bills which canbe discriminated and which belong to such bill kinds as to be able to beaccepted into the recycle box 80 are accepted into the recycle box 80.By doing so, the number of rejected bills can be reduced, and the fundefficiency can be improved.

Further, although not illustrated, in the case where the user forgets totake out bills in the deposit/withdrawal port 2, the transaction may bediscontinued under the judgment of the machine as being abnormal whilethe bills are left in the deposit/withdrawal port 2 as they are. In thepresent embodiment, however, the continuation of the succeedingtransaction is contemplated by separating the forgotten bills from thedeposit/withdrawal port 2, subjecting them to the discrimination in amanner similar to that at the time of deposit transaction and acceptingthem into the deposit box 60.

As shown in schematic diagrams of FIGS. 23 to 26, load and recoveryoperations can be performed, in the present embodiment, for the recyclebox 80 by use of the load/recovery box 81 through the temporary storagebox 40.

The load operation is such an operation that a clerk in charge does notset required bills individually into the recycle boxes 80 according tobill kind, but the clerk in charge sets bills en bloc into theload/recovery box 81 and the set bills are accepted into the recycleboxes 80 automatically in the machine. First, load count operation isperformed as shown in FIG. 23. In the load count operation, billsdelivered from the load/recovery box 81 are subjected to thediscrimination of the bill kind by the bill discriminating unit 3through a route indicated by arrows 901 d to 901 a, 501 h, 501 g, and501 b, and are accepted temporarily into the temporary storage box 40through the switched switching gate 503. Subsequently, load acceptanceoperation is performed as shown in FIG. 24. In the load acceptanceoperation, the bills are discharged from the temporary storage box 40one after another, transported through the same bill transport path inthe reverse direction, and accepted into specified recycle boxes 80according to the bill kind. In the case where the number of bills set enbloc into the load/recovery box 81 is larger than the number of billswhich can be accepted into the temporary storage box, the load countoperation and the load acceptance operation are repeated. Furthermore,load rejected bills which cannot be kind-settled are accepted into thedeposit/withdrawal port 20 through the switching gate 503 switched to adirection indicated by 503 b and through 501 f. After the acceptanceoperation of all loaded bills has been finished, the bills accepted intothe deposit/withdrawal 20 are accepted into the load/recovery box 81 byoperation similar to the operation performed at the time of deposittransaction. Alternatively, the bills accepted into thedeposit/withdrawal 20 may be accepted into the deposit box 60 asrejected bills.

The recovery operation is an operation in which for example, when therecycle box 80 becomes fill, a clerk in charge does not extract billsindividually from the recycle box, but a predetermined number of billsare automatically recovered from the recycle box 80 and accepted intothe load/recovery box 81. The recovery operation is an operation inwhich bills are moved through a route reverse to that of the loadoperation. Bills delivered out of the recycle box 80 are temporarilyaccepted into the temporary storage box 40 as shown in FIG. 25, and arethereafter recovered from the temporary storage box 40 to theload/recovery box 81 as shown in FIG. 26. Bills rejected in the recoverycount operation shown in FIG. 25 or the recovery acceptance operationshown in FIG. 26 for the reason, for example, that the bill kind cannotbe discriminated are accepted into the deposit box 60 through theswitching gate switched to a direction of 903 b in the recoveryacceptance operation of FIG. 26. Detailed description thereof will beomitted.

<Second Embodiment>

A second embodiment of the present invention will now be described byreferring to FIG. 27 showing a side view of a bill deposit/withdrawalmachine, FIG. 28 showing an exterior view of an automated tellermachine, FIGS. 29A and 29B showing operation methods of the automatedteller machine, and FIGS. 30A, 30B and 30C which are schematic diagramsshowing bill flows.

In FIG. 27, numeral 2 denotes a bill deposit/withdrawal machine, 2 a anupper transport mechanism, 2 b a lower bill mechanism, 21 adeposit/withdrawal port, 65 a reject box, 651 a partition plate, 652 anupper accepting space, 653 a lower accepting space, and 91 an openableand closable transport path. In FIG. 28, numeral 111 denotes anautomated teller machine, 111 a a front plate, 111 b a table face, 112 acard/slip processing mechanism, 112 a a card slot, 113 a passbookprocessing mechanism, 113 a a passbook slot, 114 a coindeposit/withdrawal mechanism, 114 a a coin slot, 115 a customeroperation unit, 2 a bill deposit/withdrawal machine, and 21 a bill slot.In FIGS. 29A and 29B, character 111 c denotes a front door, and 111 ddenotes a back door. Components having the same function as those of thefirst embodiment are denoted by like reference characters.

The second embodiment differs from the above described first embodimentmainly in that (a) the deposit/withdrawal port 21 is installed so as tomake the face of the bill slot 21 a nearly horizontal, (b) the lowerbill mechanism 2 b is composed of two recycle boxes 80 and the openableand closable transport path 91, and (c) the reject box 65 is providedinstead of the deposit box.

Hereafter, features of the present embodiment will be described in moredetail laying stress on the above described points of difference. (Otherconstructions and operations are considered to be easily understood fromthe description of the first embodiment. Therefore, detailed descriptionthereof will be omitted.)

(1) In the present second embodiment, the deposit/withdrawal port 21 isinstalled so as to make the bill slot 21 a nearly horizontal. The reasonfor this is that the present bill deposit/withdrawal machine 2 ismounted on the automated teller machine 111 shown in FIG. 28. An upperportion of the automated teller machine 111 is provided with thecard/slip processing mechanism 112 which communicates with the card slot112 a provided in the upper front plate 111 a to process a user's cardand print and deliver a transaction particulars slip, the passbookprocessing mechanism 113 which communicates with the passbook slot 113 ato process a user's passbook, and a transaction display unit 117. Alower portion of the automated teller machine 111 is provided with thebill deposit/withdrawal mechanism 2 for processing bills, and the coindeposit/withdrawal mechanism 114 for processing coins. The useroperation face 111 b located in an intermediate portion is provided witha customer operation section 115 for displaying and inputting thecontents of a transaction, the bill slot 21 a, and the coin slot 114 a.This automated teller machine 111 can perform processing of user'sdeposit, withdrawal and transfer by using a card, a passbook, bills,coins, and a slip as media.

As for the construction of the deposit/withdrawal port 21, thedeposit/withdrawal port 20 and the shutter mechanism forming the shutter201 shown in FIG. 14 of the first embodiment are changed in arrangementangle. In addition, a mechanism for inclining the bill hopper 216 to thehorizontal direction by rotary operation is mounted in the firstembodiment. In the deposit/withdrawal port 21, however, the rotaryoperation mechanism of the bill hopper 216 is eliminated and the billhopper is fixed.

(2) The second embodiment has a structure divided into an upper part 2 aand a lower part 2 b in the same way as the first embodiment. However,the lower bill mechanism 2 b is composed of two recycle boxes 80 and theopenable and closable transport path 91. The bill deposit/withdrawalmachine of the second embodiment is mounted on the automated tellermachine 111 shown in FIG. 28. According to the machine type, the billdeposit/withdrawal machine can be made front operation type or backoperation type in the same way as the first embodiment. In the machineof front operation type in which a clerk in charge operates from thefront face side of the machine as shown in FIG. 29A, the recycle boxeshaving respective handles appear as illustrated by opening the frontdoor 111 c of the automated teller machine 111 and further opening theopenable and closable transport path 91 of the bill deposit/withdrawalmachine 2. The clerk in charge can pull out the recycle box by using thehandle, perform operations such as bill setting, and operates theopenable and closable transport path 91 easily.

On the other hand, in the machine of back operation type in which aclerk in charge operates from the back face side of the machine as shownin FIG. 29B, the recycle boxes having respective handles appear asillustrated by opening the back door 111 d of the automated tellermachine 111. The clerk in charge can pull out the recycle box by usingthe handle, and perform operations easily.

By adopting the construction heretofore described, the billsupplementation and recovery operation and jammed bill removal operationare facilitated and the operability is improved.

In the present embodiment, the bill box casing is not provided, andconsequently the upper transport mechanism 2 a is placed directly on thelower bill mechanism.

(3) In accordance with (2), the openable and closable transport path 91has a construction conformed to two recycle boxes, and has an openableand closable structure as shown in FIG. 29A.

(4) In the second embodiment, the deposit box 60 as used in the firstembodiment is not provided. Instead, the reject box 65 is provided.

The reject box 65 of the present embodiment is smaller in acceptingspace than the deposit box 60 in the first embodiment. However, thereject box 65 has an upper accepting space 652 and a lower acceptingspace 653 separated by the partition plate 651. By switching a switchinggate 505 to a state indicated by 505 b as shown in FIG. 30A,non-returning bills and bills forgotten to take out which cannot beaccepted into the recycle box 80 at the time of deposit acceptance canbe accepted from the temporary storage box 40 into the reject box 65 asshown in FIG. 30B. (Bills which can be accepted into the recycle box 80are accepted into the recycle box 80 by switching the switching gate 505to a state of 505 a.) In the same way, by switching the switching gate505 to the state of 505 b, bills rejected at the time withdrawal can beaccepted from the temporary storage box 40 into the reject box 65 asshown in FIG. 30B. The partition plate 651 of the reject box 65 can bemoved upward and downward by a driving source which is not illustrated.By moving control of the partition plate, for example, forgotten billsare accepted into the upper accepting space 652, whereas other rejectedbills and non-returning bills are accepted into the lower acceptingspace 653. As a result, strict management of cash becomes possible.

Features of the constructions of the first and second embodimentsheretofore described and effects obtained therefrom will now bedescribed.

(1) The deposit/withdrawal port and the bill discriminating unit aredisposed in the upper part of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine, andthe bill accepting boxes are disposed in the lower part of the billdeposit/withdrawal machine. Furthermore, the bill transport path is alsoconstructed so as to be able to be divided into the upper mechanism partand the lower mechanism part. The transport path of the lower part isdisposed near the wall face of user's operation side. In a horizontalplane separating the upper part from the lower part, the mechanisms donot cross. Therefore, the upper part and the lower part can be separatedby the horizontal plane. The upper part and the lower part may bemounted on one machine casing. The lower part accepting bills may bemounted on a further rigid bill box casing. Thus, a constructionrequired to have higher security can also be provided. Since thetransmission path of the lower part is disposed near the wall face ofuser's operation side, both the front operation type in which a clerk incharge can operate from the front face and the back operation type inwhich a clerk in charge can operate from the back face can be easilyconstructed. There is universality capable of coping with various needssuch as operability, installation place, and security.

(2) In the present embodiments, the upper transport mechanism and thelower transport mechanism are provided separately. Bills beforematerialization of a transaction such as bills at the time of depositcount exist only in the upper transport mechanism. Even if a jam hasoccurred in the bills, therefore, it becomes unnecessary to open thebill box surrounding the lower bill mechanism and consequently thesecurity can be maintained. Furthermore, there is an effect that billsowned by a user (bills existing in the upper transport mechanism) andbills owned by the bank (bills existing in the lower bill mechanism) canbe distinguished definitely.

(3) Such a bill deposit/withdrawal machine that accepting boxes can beattached and detached from either of the front side and the back side isimplemented. A common structure can be applied both the machine of frontoperation type and the machine of back operation type as shownrespectively in FIGS. 5A, 29A and FIGS. 5B and 29B, resulting in highuniversality.

(4) The deposit/withdrawal ports 20 and 21 respectively of the first andsecond embodiments can provide a bill deposit/withdrawal machine whichcan be mounted on both the automated teller machine shown in FIG. 3 inwhich the user's input/discharge direction is nearly the verticaldirection and the automated teller machine shown in FIG. 27 in which theuser's input/discharge direction is nearly the horizontal direction.Thus automated teller machines having various specifications can beprovided according to the user's operability.

(5) As for the temporary storage box, the winding system using theinducing tape is adopted. Furthermore, the temporary storage boxperforms not only the temporary storage of deposit bills but also thetemporary storage of withdrawal rejected bills. As a result, a simplerecycle box can be implemented as compared with the conventional machinehaving a temporary storage box in the recycle box. It is possible tocope with not only deposit transactions of many bill kinds but alsoeasily cope with foreign bills differing largely in size as comparedwith the conventional machine owing to adoption of the winding systemusing the inducing tape. At the time of temporary storage of withdrawalrejected bills, the possibility of folded bills, broken bills, or aninclined transportation state is high. Such a machine that jam is hardto occur for them can be implemented.

The following variations are also possible.

(1) In the above described embodiments, the bill hopper of thedeposit/withdrawal port is common. However, bill hoppers may be providedseparately for the deposit port and the withdrawal port.

(2) In the above described embodiments, the winding type using therotary drum (see FIG. 17) is adopted as the temporary storage box 40.However, a construction of stacking type as in the recycle box (see FIG.22) described in the embodiment may also be adopted.

(3) In the above described embodiments, the openable and closabletransmission path (90 in the first embodiment and 91 in the secondembodiment) is provided so as to be common to all accepting boxes.However, openable and closable transmission paths may be provided foraccepting boxes, respectively.

(4) In the above described embodiments, the driving source of thetransportation path is one in number, and the transportation path 501g–501 h–901 a is coupled by gears. However, separate driving sources(motors) may be provided for the upper transport mechanism and the lowerbill mechanism. In this case, a fault such as a coupling defect causedby gears is eliminated.

(5) In the above described embodiments, each accepting box has handleson both the front side and the back side. The lower bill mechanism (1 bin the first embodiment or 2 b in the second embodiment) is constructedso as to be able to be attached and detached from either of the frontside and the back side. In this way, both the accepting boxes and thelower bill mechanism have constructions common to the machine of frontoperation type and the machine of back operation type. However, theaccepting boxes and the lower bill mechanism may be dedicated either themachine of front operation type or the machine of back operation type.By doing so, the construction is simplified and the cost can be reduced.

A third embodiment of the present invention will now be described byreferring to FIGS. 31 to 38.

As shown in FIG. 31, a bill deposit/withdrawal machine 3 of the thirdembodiment has a construction composed of an upper transport mechanism 3a and a lower bill mechanism 3 b which can be separated in the verticaldirection in the same way as the first and second embodiments. In theupper transport mechanism 3 a, a deposit/withdrawal port 21, a billdiscriminating unit 30, a temporary storage box 40, and a reject box 65are connected by a bill transport path 52.

The difference of the third embodiment from the second embodiment willnow be described.

As shown in a schematic diagram of FIG. 32, the bill transport path 52does not transport bills through the bill discriminating unit 30 in bothdirections, but transport bills through the bill discriminating unit 30in only one direction indicated by arrow 511 a. A ring-like main billtransport path 511 leaving the bill discriminating unit 30 and returningto the bill discriminating unit 30 through a route indicated by arrows511 b, 511 c, 511 d, 511 e, 511 f and 51 g is constructed. In addition,a unit bill transport path 512 for connecting each unit to the main billtransport path 511 unidirectionally is provided. The unit bill transportpath 512 is composed of a transport path from a delivery port of thedeposit/withdrawal port 21 to the main bill transport path 511(indicated by arrow 512 a), a transport path from the main billtransport path 511 to an acceptance port of the deposit/withdrawal port21 (indicated by arrow 512 b), a transport path from the main billtransport path 511 to an acceptance port of the temporary storage box 40(indicated by arrow 512 c), a transport path from a delivery port of thetemporary storage box 40 to the main bill transport path 511 (indicatedby arrow 512 d), a transport path from the main bill transport path 511to a lower bill transport path 901 (indicated by arrow 512 e), atransport path from the lower bill transport path 901 to the main billtransport path 511 (indicated by arrow 512 f), and a transport path fromthe main bill transport path 511 to the reject box 65 (indicated byarrow 512 g). The lower bill transport path 901 is a bidirectionaltransport path. Furthermore, at branch points of the main bill transportpath 511 and respective unit bill transport path 512 a to 512 g,switching gates 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, and 518 are mounted. (Suffix“a” and “b” indicate the states of the switching gate.)

FIGS. 33 to 38 are diagrams showing the flow of bills transported on thebill transport path shown in FIG. 32 according to the content of thetransaction.

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time ofdeposit count. Bills from the deposit/withdrawal port 21 are passedthrough the bill discriminating unit 30. On the basis of the result ofthe discrimination, the bills are passed through the switching gates 513a, 514 b and 516 a and accepted into the temporary storage box 40, orreturned to the deposit/withdrawal port 21 through the switching gate513 b.

FIG. 34 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time ofdeposit acceptance. According to the result of the discriminationperformed at the time of deposit count, bills from the temporary storagebox are accepted into the recycle box 80 or accepted into the rejectbox.

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time ofcancel return. Bills from the temporary storage box 40 are returned tothe reject box 65 or to the deposit/withdrawal port 21 through the billdiscriminating unit 30.

FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time ofwithdrawal. Bills from the recycle box are subjected to discriminationin the bill discriminating unit 30, and then transported to thedeposit/withdrawal port 21 for withdrawal, accepted in the temporarystorage box 40, or accepted into the reject box 65.

FIG. 37 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time ofwithdrawal reject acceptance. Bills from the temporary storage box 40are accepted into the recycle box 80.

FIG. 38 is a schematic diagram showing the bill flow at the time offorgotten bill recovery. Forgotten bills from the deposit/withdrawalport 21 are passed through the bill discriminating unit 30, and acceptedinto the recycle box 80 or accepted into the reject box 65.

In the third embodiment, bills are not transported through the billdiscriminating unit 30 bidirectionally. The ring-like main billtransport path 511 transport bills through the bill discriminating unit30 unidirectionally. The lower bill transport path is composed of abidirectional bill transport path. Thus the transport path constructionis simple, and a highly reliable machine which is low in possibility ofbill jam can be provided. In other words, in user's deposittransactions, various users might input a folded or broken bill to thedeposit port or input a coin or an alien substance together with billsto the deposit port by mistake. When delivering such a bill, it mightincline largely or be broken. Depending upon the transport state, thereis not a little possibility of jam occurrence in the bill transportpath. Furthermore, in a machine capable of handling foreign bills aswell, not only the number of bill kinds increases as compared with thecase of Japanese yen bills, but also the size of bills largely differ inboth the longitudinal and lateral directions according to the bill kindin many cases. There is a possibility of a large number of billsinputted to the deposit port being largely disturbed in evenness.Furthermore, as for the degree of fold and breaking of bills, there arebills in conditions worse than those of Japanese yen bills, when seenfrom the circulating situation of bills in various countries. Whenhandling bills of such bad conditions, the bill transport path 50 hashigh reliability against the bill jam because of its simple constructionof the bill guide plane.

A fourth embodiment of the present invention will now be described byreferring to FIGS. 39 and 40.

As for the construction of a bill transport path 53, the fourthembodiment has the construction shown in the schematic diagram of FIG.32 in the same way as the third embodiment. The fourth embodimentdiffers from the third embodiment in that connection bill transportpaths 540 or 541 is constructed between an upper transport mechanism 4 aand a lower bill mechanism 4 b of a bill deposit/withdrawal machine 4 or5.

The bill deposit/withdrawal machine of the fourth embodiment is mountedon the automated teller machine 101 as shown in FIG. 1. In the machineof back operation type as shown in FIG. 5B, the bill deposit/withdrawalmachine 4 shown in FIG. 39 is used. In the machine of front operationtype as shown in FIG. 5A, the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 5 shown inFIG. 40 is used. In the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 4 shown in FIG.39, the connection bill transport path 540 is provided between the uppertransport mechanism 4 a and the lower bill mechanism 4 b. In the billdeposit/withdrawal machine 5 shown in FIG. 40, the connection billtransport path 541 is provided between the upper transport mechanism 4 aand the lower bill mechanism 4 b. The upper transport mechanism 4 a andthe lower bill mechanism 4 b of FIG. 40 are the same as those of FIG.39. However, the lower bill mechanism 4 b of FIG. 40 is mountedbackward. In either of the bill deposit/withdrawal machine 4 of FIG. 39for machines of back operation type and the bill deposit/withdrawalmachine 5 of FIG. 40 for machines of front operation type, the clerk incharge need not open or close the lower transport path 92 when operatingthe bill accepting boxes (60, 80) unlike the openable and closabletransmission paths 90 and 91 shown in the first to third embodiments. Bymerely opening and closing the door of the bill box casing 106, theclerk in charge can operate the bill accepting boxes directly.

How the selection of the front operation/back operation in operationmethod of the clerk in charge is coped with in the fourth embodimentwill now be described. The upper transport path 4 a is common. The lowerbill mechanism 4 b and the bill box casing 106 are common, and installedso as to be forward-facing or backward-facing. As for the connectionbill transport path, two kinds 540 and 541 are prepared. According tothe selection of the front operation/back operation, either theconnection bill transport path 540 or 541 is used. It becomes possibleto provide such a machine that bill accepting boxes can be easilyoperated.

According to the present invention, a bill deposit/withdrawal machinehaving a simple bill transport construction, and a highly reliable billdeposit/withdrawal machine reduced in bill jam not only for Japanese yenbills but also for bills having various sizes can be realized.Furthermore, a highly versatile bill deposit/withdrawal machine capableof coping with various specifications in aspects of operability of theuser and the clerk in charge and security.

1. A bill deposit/withdrawal machine for performing deposit orwithdrawal of bills, comprising: a deposit/withdrawal port forperforming deposit or withdrawal of bills; a bill discriminating unitfor discriminating bills; a temporary storage box for temporarilystoring bills; a reject box for storing rejected bills; and a pluralityof bill accepting boxes for accepting recycle bills; wherein said rejectbox is disposed on a path diverged from a bill transport path connectingsaid bill discriminating unit and said temporary storage box; wherein,when a bill deposited from said deposit/withdrawal port is discriminatedas a bill to be rejected by said bill discriminating unit, said bill tobe rejected is temporarily stored in said temporary storage box and thentransported to said reject box.
 2. A bill deposit/withdrawal machine forperforming deposit or withdrawal of bills, comprising: adeposit/withdrawal port for performing deposit or withdrawal of bills; abill discriminating unit for discriminating bills; a temporary storagebox for temporarily storing bills; a reject box for storing rejectedbills; and a plurality of bill accepting boxes for accepting recyclebills; wherein said reject box is disposed on a path diverged from abill transport path connecting said bill discriminating unit and saidtemporary storage box, further comprising an upper bill mechanismdisposed in an upper portion of said bill deposit/withdrawal machine,said upper bill mechanism including said deposit/withdrawal port, saidbill discriminating unit and said temporary storage box.
 3. A billdeposit/withdrawal machine for performing deposit or withdrawal ofbills, comprising: a deposit/withdrawal port for performing deposit orwithdrawal of bills; a bill discriminating unit for discriminatingbills; a temporary storage box for temporarily storing bills; a rejectbox for storing rejected bills; and a plurality of bill accepting boxesfor accepting recycle bills; wherein said reject box is disposed on apath diverged from a bill transport path connecting said billdiscriminating unit and said temporary storage box; wherein a billtransport path connecting said bill discriminating unit and saidtemporary storage box is capable of transporting bills in two-ways.
 4. Abill deposit/withdrawal machine for performing deposit or withdrawal ofbills, comprising: a deposit/withdrawal port for performing deposit orwithdrawal of bills; a bill discriminating unit for discriminating billsdeposited from said deposit/withdrawal port; a temporary storage box fortemporarily storing bills discriminated by said bill discriminatingunit; a plurality of bill accepting boxes for accepting bills depositedfrom said deposit/withdrawal port or bills to delivered to saiddeposit/withdrawal port; and a reject box for accepting bills notsuitable for storing in said plurality of bill accepting boxes; whereinsaid reject box is disposed below said temporary storage box; whereinsaid reject box accepts bills not suitable for storing in said pluralityof bill accepting boxes and delivered from said temporary storage box.5. A bill deposit/withdrawal machine for performing deposit orwithdrawal of bills, comprising: a deposit/withdrawal port forperforming deposit or withdrawal of bills; a bill discriminating unitfor discriminating bills deposited from said deposit/withdrawal port; atemporary storage box for temporarily storing bills discriminated bysaid bill discriminating unit; a plurality of bill accepting boxes foraccepting bills deposited from said deposit/withdrawal port or bills todelivered to said deposit/withdrawal port; and a reject box foraccepting bills not suitable far storing in said plurality of billaccepting boxes; wherein said reject box is disposed below saidtemporary storage box; further comprising an upper bill mechanismdisposed in an upper portion of said bill deposit/withdrawal machine,said upper bill mechanism including said deposit/withdrawal port, saidbill discriminating unit and said temporary storage box.